Christmas 2016

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I was hit with some kind of crud yesterday. I was playing a funeral and halfway through it I was all kinds of dizzy. I didn't go in to work. I came home and got into my jammies and spent the afternoon in Harold's chair, finishing off the tops of Christmas stockings and watching Christmas movies. I felt a little better later in the afternoon so I went downstairs and puttered with some stuff in the workshop and - voila! -I made me a lamp!

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Thoughts from the cornfield:I wrote a rather lengthy reflection on the subject of the Narrow Gate in my book "The Tarantella Dancers." It is based on Matthew's version. I wrote it the day after my grandmother died. One of the things that Grandma used to worry about was whether Grandpa would get into heaven. It was her belief that holding onto grudges, hurts, and fears was the very thing that would keep him out. The day after she died, I thought about what she told me - that God would not allow us to enter his kingdom if we were carrying anything that was contrary to the essence of love. These are the burdens we carry on this earth. This is what Jesus came to lift from us. Oddly enough, we tend to cling to these "earthly possesions." Do we have the strength to let go of these burdens so that we can fit through the narrow gate? Grandpa did; it took him three years, but he did it . . . by God, he did it.